In a conventional communication system including a master device and one or more slave devices, the master device generates commands and the slave devices perform various communication processes in response to the commands. To communicate with the slave devices connected in this system, the master device is required to set the configuration of each slave device when the system is activated. The configuration process includes setting the parameters of the physical layer and the data link layer of each slave device.
For example, Patent Literature 1 describes a technique used in a communication system in which a plurality of slave devices are connected in a chain. In this communication system, the slave devices are activated to enter a mode in which they can return a received command to the master device in an initial state, and then the slave devices switch to a through-mode when receiving a command from the master device and returning the command to the master device.
Patent Literature 2 describes a technique used in another communication system. In the communication system, a master device transmits a connection request to a plurality of devices. The master device separately initializes each device that has transmitted a response to the connection request, and controls (sets) the initialized device to enter a sleep mode. The master device then transmits a connection request again to the device and waits for a response from the device.